CALIFORNIA: GOP House Candidate Confesses That She Made Up Death Threats Against Her

Last year the US House candidacy of GOP former Stanislaus County Clerk and anti-abortion activist Karen Mathews Davis gained national attention when she claimed to have gotten death threats from anonymous writers who threatened to shoot her and her husband in the head if she didn’t withdraw from the race.

While the feds investigated, Davis told the local press that wasn’t going to “give in to terrorism” and that “if those people weren’t able to stop me from doing the right thing, then Obama and Pelosi don’t have a prayer.” Today Davis has been charged with lying to the FBI after confessing that she made it all up.

Davis is charged with making false, fictitious or fraudulent statements or representations to federal law enforcement officers during their investigation into the mailing of threatening letters. Davis, 67, was arrested at her Lodi home and then released after posting $50,000 bond Thursday, court documents show. She’s scheduled to return to federal court in Sacramento on Nov. 19. She was one of three Republicans who challenged McNerney, D-Stockton, as he sought a fifth term last year. She finished fourth out of four in the June 2014 top-two primary, with only 6 percent of the vote. In February, Davis went to the FBI office in Stockton to be interviewed. She agreed to take a polygraph test but failed it, and then admitted she had written both letters and sent them to herself, Hartman wrote. In a signed statement, Davis wrote that she sent herself the first letter after Lodi police told her she probably wouldn’t be granted a permit to carry a concealed handgun.

But wait there’s more. In 1998 Davis was sued by a man who ultimately spent 18 years in prison on charges that he attacked her. He continues to maintain his innocence.